If you spend a fortune making your house air-tight with spray foam insulation, and then punch 27-29 holes in it and fill them with cheap windows, you’ve basically defeated the entire purpose of the exercise.
This is the story of how we did exactly that.
The Window Budget Reality
By the time we got to windows, we’d already blown through our budget on the above-ground septic, the well, water filtration, radiant floor heating, and spray foam insulation. We needed windows. Lots of windows. And we needed them not to cost a fortune.
Jennifer designed the house with tons of natural light — a triple window in the kitchen, French doors, two entry doors, somewhere between 27 and 29 windows depending on how you count. Bright and airy means a lot of glass. A lot of glass means a lot of money. Especially if you want good glass.
We didn’t have a lot of money left.
Why We Chose Pella
We went with Pella Architect Series for the reasons people usually go with Pella. National brand. Available locally. The “premium” line, supposedly. Better than the big-box brands, supposedly. Within our already-stretched budget, definitely. We were tired and we were over budget and Pella looked like the safe middle ground between “cheap garbage” and “windows that cost as much as a car.”
We didn’t know enough to ask the right questions. We didn’t know what features actually mattered. We just knew we needed a lot of windows and Pella was a name-brand we’d heard of.
The First Signs of Trouble
The problems started almost immediately after installation, but we didn’t recognize them as problems at first.
When you’re building a house, everything is chaos. You’re making a thousand decisions, dealing with a thousand issues, living somewhere else and managing construction from a distance. So when the brand-new windows showed a little condensation, you tell yourself it’s normal. New house. Fresh drywall, paint, everything still drying out.
Except it never stopped.
Winter came, and the windows were covered in moisture. Not a little fog — water running down the glass, pooling on the sills, freezing into ice on the coldest days. We ran the HRV 24/7. We ran dehumidifiers. We wiped down the windows with towels every morning.
Nothing helped.
Fifteen Years of Failure
Here’s what we’re still dealing with:
- Constant moisture buildup, even with dehumidifier and HRV running continuously
- Two windows completely glazed over with moisture every winter
- Mold growth in the kids’ rooms from the constant dampness
- Ice dams forming on the windows themselves
- Paint failure on the sills from all the standing water
- Warped wood components
- Broken hardware
- UV protection failure — everything near a window fades and bleaches
- Air leaks around the frames
The house tells you where the problem is. When snow piles up against the sills and blocks the air infiltration, the house is noticeably warmer and drier. The snow does what the windows are supposed to do.
Pella’s Response
When we contacted Pella about the issues, their response was to blame us for “lack of moisture control” and “faulty installation.”
Never mind that we run a dehumidifier constantly. Never mind that we ran the HRV around the clock for years. Never mind that we have spray foam insulation creating a tight envelope, every other component of the house works fine, and only the windows have moisture issues. According to Pella, it’s our fault. The windows are fine. We’re just not managing our indoor environment correctly.
This is, to put it mildly, horseshit.
What We Should Have Done
Looking back with fifteen years of bitter experience: Marvin. Triple-pane. Period. Yes, they cost more. So does replacing all your windows after fifteen years because the cheap ones failed.
We spent a fortune on spray foam to make the house air-tight, then bought mediocre windows that leak air like sieves. It’s like buying a safe and leaving the door open.
We could have bought fewer windows and bought better ones. We could have compromised somewhere else — interior finishes, features we didn’t really need, anything else. Instead, we compromised on windows. Fifteen years later, nobody cares that we saved money on the project. But we sure as hell notice every winter morning when we’re wiping condensation off the glass.
I wrote up the full Pella Architect Series review separately, with every specific issue catalogued. It’s available here. Fair warning: it’s not pretty. If you’re considering Pella, read it first.
Grade: D-. Twenty-seven holes in a tight, spray-foamed house, filled with Pella Architect Series, and fifteen years of moisture, ice, mold, paint failure, warped wood, broken hardware, UV bleaching, and air infiltration to show for it. The house tells you where the problem is every time it snows — when the drift piles up against the sills and seals the leaks, the house gets warmer and drier. Pella’s official position is that we are not managing our indoor environment correctly. We run a dehumidifier. We ran the HRV around the clock for years. The only thing in this house with moisture problems is the windows. The installers did their job. The windows are the failure. Don’t cheap out on windows. Just don’t.
Next up: Part 12 — Insulation and Air Sealing. How we made a tight house that the windows promptly defeated.
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